THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER
Image courtesy of Penguin Random house
First read ever!! I fell in love with how he wove words together. A brilliant storyteller.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOM X
Image courtesy of Amazon
This book is a classic!! Let me just say how much I loveeddd it! The words of Malcolm X resonate with everything that is going on today.
Malcolm X is an amazing storyteller. He gives you a history of his life and the events that shaped him into Malcolm X. Def a must read!
My favorite quotes.
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
― Malcolm X
“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
― Malcolm X
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
― Malcolm X
“We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.”
― Malcolm X
“Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.”
― Malcolm X
LET ME STOP BEFORE i COPY PASTE THE WHOLE BOOK! :)
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Image Coutesy of Amazon
Wow! Wow!!
Writing is excellent! The images in the story so vivid, I was shook! My emotions were all over the place. There were times when I shut the book and got really quiet. Really withdrawn. There is so much violence and it remind us of the injustice and horrific suffering due to racial inequality.
The underground rail road in this story is a fictional rail road system made to represent the tumultuous journey black people had to go through to attain freedom.
This book takes us on a journey of a slave girl named Cora. She was born a slave in a plantation in Georgia. Cora, is an outcast at the plantation. Not only do her fellow slaves treat her as if she has some infectious disease, the plantation she is at is an amalgamation of all things horrific, macabre and repugnant you have ever heard about slavery. I can’t even start describing it.
Her journey to escape begins when Caesar, a slave who just arrived from Virginia convinces her to escape the plantation. They escape and Colson takes us through the most harrowing journey ever. Ridgeway, a slave catcher is the bane of Cora’s existence with his main goal to capture and return her to her owner. When I say his description will make your blood boil. I mean just that. It reads like a movie. There are times my heart would race as if I was running a 100 meter dash wanting the best for Cora.
The writing is brilliant, the narrative is impeccable but also difficult, it will hold on to you from page one all the way to the end.
Some memorable lines.
“Cora didn't know what optimistic meant. She asked the other girls that night if they were familiar with the word. None of them had heard it before. She decided that it meant trying.” ( I read this line so many times, I cried!)
“The music stopped. The circle broke. Sometimes a slave will be lost in a brief eddy of liberation. In the sway of a sudden reverie among the furrows or while untangling the mysteries of an early morning dream. In the middle of a song on a warm Sunday night. Then it comes, always — the overseer's cry, the call to work, the shadow of the master, the reminder that she is only a human being for a tiny moment across the eternity of her servitude.”
“The whites came to this land for a fresh start and to escape the tyranny of their masters, just as the freemen had fled theirs. But the ideals they held up for themselves, they denied others.”
Choosing to read a book about slavery means choosing to immerse yourself in brutality, violence, and inhumanity. But there's something essential about reading this kind of book. In the United States it's too easy to forget the dark times in our history. While this book isn't easy or light, it is deeply moving and very powerful. (A goods Read Review)
SWING TIME
I just finished reading this book. It is rich in everything. I am a sucker for prose, beautiful prose and this book nails it! This is my first read from Zadie and I can officially tell you that I am a fan. I am looking forward to WHITE TEETH as my next read from her.
This story flips back and forth between present day and the past. It’s about black girls who grew up together in England. They were brought together through dance. Zadie then weaves a tale of how their lives were interwoven as they grew into maturity. It’s a tale about complicated friendship, race, color, dance, culture celebrity and capitalism. It touches on a lot of themes.
At times I found myself caught up in the story and being twisted in another world as the narrator flipped back and forth. It’s in her writing that you get drawn in. Her prose is impeccable. I found myself empathizing with the narrator as her friendship with her friend got complicated over the years.
It’s definitely a must read. It’s a long one. Grab it on a long flight or on vacation. A book that should be savored.
PS:I have started borrowing my books from the New York Public Library and I am one happy camper. My Mission this year is to up my reading game which slowed down last year. Will update this section more often this year. Look out for more reviews!! :)
Photo Courtesy of Amazon
